“Disastrous” Summer for Macedonian Media

The France-based international pressure group has accused the right-wing government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of an all-out attempt to control local media.

The media watchdog group in a press release on Wednesday said this summer had been particularly “disastrous for Macedonian media”.

The NGO points out to recent closures of key media outlets, as well as questionable reforms in the Broadcasting Council and cases of pressure against Journalist’s Union leaders, "does not bode well for freedom of expression".

On July 3, the dailies Vreme, Koha e Re and Spic all closed as a result of a government investigation into alleged unpaid taxes against their publisher, Plus Production. These had been the country’s loudest pro-opposition media.

On August 8, the same happened with the country’s leading privately-owned television station, A1 TV, after a court declared it bankrupt due to an unpaid debt of some 9 million euro to the tax office. A1 was also a vocal government critic.

A1 owner Velija Ramkovski and several of his business associates have meanwhile been in detention since December. They are currently being trialed for alleged tax evasion, money laundering and organised crime. The government has insisted that it is going after him and not his media outlet.

"While it is clearly legitimate to combat money laundering and tax fraud,” RWB said, “The government clearly seized the chance to silence some of the few media that criticize it."

"A staggered debt payment schedule could and should have been negotiated to ensure the survival of these independent media," it says.

Reporters Without Borders is also worried by recent reforms to the Broadcasting Council "in such a way as to bring it under [government] control by increasing the number of its members from nine to 15".

The ruling parties in parliament approved the changes on July 18. According to the new provision the six new members are to be named by the country’s President, the parliament’s Anti-Corruption Commission and the Electronic Communications Agency – all of which the NGO says are controlled by the ruling VMRO DPMNE party.

"It is hard to believe that all this was just a coincidence. There is every reason for questioning the real goals being pursued by a government that seems bent on tightening its grip on the media," the pressure group said.

Reporters Without Borders sees last week’s decision by the executive committee of the state TV, the Macedonian Radio and Television, to fire its entire board of governors before expiry of their term as yet another “illegal” government attempt to gain “very direct control over both the regulatory bodies and the management of the state-owned media”.

RWB also noted and condemned the recent cases of dismissal of two journalists active in the local Journalist’s Union.

Tamara Causidis, the union head, was fired from the privately owned Alsat M TV on July 9 in a procedure she claims was illegal. While her employers say that it was done on the basis of a mutual agreement, Causidis says here signature has been forged and she has been sacked for her activism in the union.

Another union activist, Tamara Grncarovska, who is member of the union’s board, was sacked in July from the Untrinski Vesnik daily, a newspaper owned by Germany’s WAZ.

She too claims her dismissal was a form of reprisal for her activism in a local journalist protest and says none of the usual dismissal procedures were observed in her case.

RWB reaction comes after last month several other organisations such as the European Commission, the OSCE and Freedom House expresed concern about freedom of speech in Macedonia.